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market-farming - Re: Fast Food and Slow Food

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  • From: Vicki Madden <vlmadden AT spacelab.net>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Fast Food and Slow Food
  • Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2001 09:00:43 -0700


I normally only lurk here, as I am not a farmer--YET! But this discussion
inspired me to post a few things.

The Slow Food movement is something you all may want to check out; there is
a web site at www.slowfood.com. It is about the preservation of taste, as
well as hospitality and other good things.

I think it would be a great idea for farmers to get together with chefs in
an area and put on a harvest dinner in the late summer/early fall. Make it
an annual community event, where the goal isn't to make much money (so the
price is reasonable) but people get to eat REAL, GOOD food as well as get
to know local farms. And make the recipes available; I agree with whoever
said they need to be simple. I cook A LOT, but I am amazed by how many of
my friends don't actually know how to cook things that don't come in boxes
with instructions. Even among people in our CSA, no one knows how to clean
or prepare most vegetables. I wrote an article for the newsletter about how
I wash my produce -- and people were gushing with appreciation, as it was
all new to them.

Regarding formula (or artificial breast milk, a more accurate name), the
companies are influencing the doctors and nurses, just like the ag
companies and schools. There are boycotts in effect against the big formula
companies for very good reasons.

Breastfeeding, like sustainable farming with few purchased inputs, is a
healthy, closed system that doesn't need to buy much. So, companies hate
it! But, only companies with products to sell will do
advertising/marketing. Where there is no incentive to make big bucks, there
is no incentive to have big, visible advertisting campaigns. (Not that I am
saying a big ad campaign is desirable. Just that artificial breast milk and
McDonalds have to create a perceived need in people in order to sell their
products.)

And, sigh, children's diets. When I was growing up, we *never* ate out. We
made everything from scratch (at 14, I was butchering a deer on the kitchen
table.) But I preferred Twinkies to my mom's wonderful homemade cinnamon
rolls. That is why parents need to be in charge of deciding what food
children have regular access to.

Vicki
the humbled mother of a child who once declared the "only potatoes I like
are McDonald's french fries"





  • Re: Fast Food and Slow Food, Vicki Madden, 07/08/2001

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